Last year – yes it has now been a year, when we began the process of applying for a service dog from Animals For Autism (also known as Siberian Snow Babies) we were matched with a beautiful pup. We excitedly looked at the information about this amazing puppy who was about to change our lives.
It was fate!
Her birthday was 03/07! That is Jimmy’s birthday! Today!
"Bella"
This little puppy, who we were instantly smitten with, shared Jimmy’s birthday!
It was meant to be! This beautiful girl was to be ours.
She was perfect! We memorized everything we could about her.
"Bella" at 6 weeks
We put her picture on our phones so we could show complete strangers in the Target checkout line. We made her picture our screen saver so we could see her when we walked by the computer. We put her pictures on Faith’s iPod so she could scroll through them. And she did. Several times a day. We sent in our monthly payments of $750. We talked about Bella. We loved Bella. Today should have been her first birthday.
Too bad she never existed.
Oh, as a dog, she existed. She is a real dog. But she was not born 03/07/2011 as stated.
"Bella" with date info
She was born 03/24/2007
The dog my daughter fell in love with, that we all fell in love with, did not exist as we were led to believe she did.
None of the Pepsi Pups existed.
"James" the free service dog
And neither Pepsi or Global Giving see anything wrong with this.
So today, instead of wishing the dog we fell in love with a Happy Birthday, I am saying goodbye to the dream that began 1 year ago.
What is very wrong is how Ms. Kaydus drew these vulnerable families in with grand promises and then tricked them into voting and supporting her cause so she alone could win $50,000. The families have gotten nothing in return. In fact, if the families hadn’t started digging, she would have gotten away with her disappearing act.
Ms Kaydus, you know that without the help of these families you would not have won the money. I hope you will step forward and do the right thing by using the money to train real service dogs for these families. The longer you keep quiet about all this, the more it confirms their worst suspicions.